We've noticed that some of you are struggling with your iPads with using iMovie, installing apps, updating the operating system, etc.

There are two things that really must occur to help with just about every problem. Your goal is to keep 1-2GB of available storage on your mobile device (see image below).

Free up space by removing or deleting unneeded materials

delete photos and video that are not necessary

keep books in iBooks and Kindle apps in the cloud unless you are reading it currently (just click remove from device)

delete apps that aren’t necessary for school (one or two games are sufficient)

Back up work

iCloud is typically where students back up their devices and it is built into the operating system (iOS). This isn’t bad but the 5GB they get for free will fill up quickly.

It would be better to turn off the backup to iCloud of something like Notability and instead turn on the backup within the app directly to Google Drive where we all have an infinite amount of storage space for FREE.

Turn off the backup of any app that is not essential.

You can send individual files from apps such as Pages to Google Drive where we all have an infinite amount of storage space for FREE.

Did we mention that in Google Drive we have an INFINITE amount of storage space? We would really encourage everyone to use Google Drive to back up anything you don’t want to lose.

It's week three and our learners are settling in quite nicely to their new home at the CYMS Hub! Today we touched on a number of important topics including device safety and handling, proper use of social media, common symbols and icons that the students may encounter, troubleshooting issues that may (and will!) pop up with the devices, and efficiency/shortcuts.

In Mrs. Howell's room learners discussed proper device safety and handling and learned to identify common symbols and icons, both of which you can check out on these pdf files:

In Mrs. Koplitz' class our learners played a fun matching game to hone their shortcut skills so that they will be able to use their devices as efficiently as possible. They also discussed some important device safety and handling tips to avoid those awful cracked screens (or worse!)

Miss Eaton's class watched a short video on a very important topic - cyberbullying, and also reviewed social media safety/proper use guidelines that they learned in grades 4-6. They also talked about proper device safety and handling and collaborated to create a Google Doc to help our learners to independently troubleshoot common issues that they may encounter before going directly to a teacher or tech person.